The field of the present invention is multifunctional printers and, more particularly, human interface mechanisms for multifunctional printers.
Xerographic copiers have been used in office environments since the advent of the Xerox 914(copyright) in 1959. Xerographic printers have been used in office environments since the Xerox 1200(copyright) was introduced in 1973. Multifunctional printers capable of both copy and print services as well as scan and fax services have become ubiquitous in modern office environments in the mid to late 1990""s. Throughout each of these evolutions one guiding human factor principle has been to make the units as small and compact as possible. In particular, small footprints have been emphasized as well as maintaining the top surfaces of units either at walk-up standing height (typically around 38 to 39 inches high for the platen glass inches high) or at desk top height.
Although production printing systems often have cathode ray or flat panel interface screens mounted in an upright fashion above the primary top surface of the system, office printers have traditionally placed user interfaces essentially horizontally on the top surface of the machines or, at most, along a back ridge rising no more than 7 inches above the main top surface of the system. In older systems with larger footprints than today""s typical office multifunctional printer, a document feeder/handler was often placed at one end of the top surface of the system, and the rear raised ridge with interface information and control buttons was placed along the portion of the top surface that remained unobstructed by the documents feeder/handler. As footprints have gotten smaller, the typical document feeder/handler has occupied a greater proportion of the top surface of office multifunctional printer systems. This decreasing footprint and need to mount the document feeder/handler has essentially forced the user interface displays and control functions onto an essentially horizontal surface near the front of the system. In this manner, a user can easily walk-up to the system, look down, and obtain relatively easy access to the user interface and relevant information for machine status and control. The above history and trends can be traced in the Xerox Equipment Handbook which displays line drawings of all of Xerox office products since the Xerox 1090 copier launched in 1985.
Vertical message boards have not heretofore been associated with office equipment and especially not with multifunctional printers. Even stand-alone kiosks and vertical message boards of the type found, in malls communicate either information concerning surroundings external to the kiosk such as maps, advertising and directions, or information concerning the operation of equipment included within the kiosk itself, such as, for example, the instructions on a photo-kiosk.
What is missing in an office environment is a vertically disposed message board intended less to convey instructional information than to convey non-obvious information concerning the capabilities of the equipment to which it is attached. What is also missing in the prior art and especially in modern multifunctional printer products, is a display that enables a user, or bystander to quickly understand while at a distance the core services of which the system is capable and some information regarding the system status. It would be desirable to enable the user to obtain this information without the need to walk up to the machine to either look down and the interface module or to be close enough to relatively small buttons and displays in order to be able to read the information. As an example, it would be beneficial if a user that wishes to make a walk-up copy on a multifunctional printer could seen from 20 or more feet whether the machine is currently occupied with another job. Such information visible from afar would save the user from walking up to the system and waiting for the job in progress to clear. Similarly, highly visible information that indicates a malfunction with a machine can more easily draw attention that the system needs attending. There would then be less likelihood that the system would remain disabled while users continue to create a backlog in its queue with jobs that can""t be currently printed or processed.
One aspect of the invention is a multifunctional printer having a marking engine module that has a rear wall and has a plane view width dimension and a maximum plane view height dimension, a feature information board assembly, comprising: a feature information board having a width dimension that is wider than the width dimension of the marking engine module and a height dimension that is at least about 4 inches higher than the maximum height dimension of the marking engine module; attachment fixtures for attaching the feature information board in an essentially upright position proximate to the rear wall of the marking engine module; and human recognizable symbols located on the feature information board for conveying information concerning the feature capabilities of the multifunctional printer.
Another aspect of the invention is a multifunctional printer having a marking engine module that has a rear top edge and has a maximum height dimension, a feature information board assembly, comprising: an inactive display region attached to the rear top edge of the marking engine module; an active interface module comprising human interpretable indicators indicating which services the multifunctional printer is capable of performing, said active interface module being attached to the inactive display region, wherein the combination of the inactive display region and active interface module attain a height dimension at least about 4 inches higher than the maximum height dimension of the marking engine module; and attachment fixtures for attaching the feature information board proximate to rear wall of the marking engine module.
Yet another aspect of the invention is a multifunctional printer, comprising: a marking engine module that has a rear wall and has a plane view width dimension and a maximum plane view height dimension; a feature information board having a width dimension that is wider than the width dimension of the marking engine module and a height dimension that is at least about 4 inches higher than the maximum height dimension of the marking engine module; attachment fixtures for attaching the feature information board in an essentially upright position proximate to the rear wall of the marking engine module; and human recognizable symbols located on the feature information board for conveying information concerning the feature capabilities of the multifunctional printer.
Yet another aspect of the present invention is a process for a multifunctional printer having a marking engine module that has a rear wall and has a plane view width dimension and a maximum plane view height dimension, a process for conveying information describing the feature capabilities of the multifunctional printer, said process comprising: forming a feature information board having a width dimension that is wider than the width dimension of the marking engine module and a height dimension that is at least about 4 inches higher than the maximum height dimension of the marking engine module; attaching the feature information board in an essentially upright position proximate to the rear wall of the marking engine module; and placing human recognizable symbols on the feature information for conveying information concerning the feature capabilities of the multifunctional printer.